Episode 32 (10-14-15)

Miranda tried to make some sense of her financial situation, to see if she could retire.

After spending a few weeks in Palo Alto, where she’d grown up, she was astonished by all the changes; but also fascinated by the town’s new personality and vitality, intertwined with the old.

She wanted to live in Palo Alto. At least for a year or two, while she figured out the next chapter of her life. But could she do it?

Episode 31 (10-13-15)

Carol and Harold made the decision to buy a house in Southgate.

They were a young couple in their early thirties, with a small daughter, and another on the way.

They made the decision for the Palo Alto public school system. Palo Alto had high taxes; but the citizenry, historically, had believed in schools and libraries and supported such institutions.

Episode 30 (10-12-15)

Miranda and Eddie were sitting at Café Venetia on University Avenue, sipping their lattes, when the earthquake struck.

“That’s a mild one,” said Eddie. “Probably not too much damage. We’re close to the epicenter.”

Some of the people on the street seemed not to have noticed the shake.

Episode 29 (10-10-15)

Miranda bought a coffee for Eddie at Café Venetia on University Avenue.

He was the old friend of her brother’s, whom she’d grown up with, and who had turned into a street person in Palo Alto.

“Fifty hits of acid,” was the story her brother had told her many years ago, “All at once.”

Episode 28 (10-09-15)

As Carl worked feverishly on his start-up prospectus for building and marketing a robot nanny for children, he dreamed that this, finally, after all these years of struggling, was his road to fame and fortune.

He thought about all the people who had told him he would never be able to do it. Co-workers who said that he was just not a cutting-edge guy.

Episode 27 (10-08-15)

Failed start-up maven Carl worked feverishly on developing his new start-up idea of a robot nanny.

He was sure this invention would be his key to fame and fortune; and his escape from the drudgery of being a mere worker.

Episode 26 (10-07-15)

Miranda felt that she owed some kind of amends to Taylor for pre-judging the girl as an idiot.

She had first encountered Taylor as a waitress at Coupa when the girl said “Perfect” to every customer’s request.

Episode 25 (10-06-15)

“Seriously,” said Jeremy, it’s hard being a slacker in Palo Alto these days.
“There is all this pressure to work. To get a good job.”

He continued, “To sit in front of a screen at a picnic table everyday with a bunch of coder drones, or whatever they are doing these days.”

Episode 24 (10-05-15)

Miranda sat outside the gelato shop on Hamilton Street, eating her four-dollar ice cream. Prices certainly had risen in Palo Alto, since her youth. She could remember nickel popsicles from her early childhood.

Looking around the gelato shop at the hyperactive tech workers taking afternoon breaks, Miranda wondered if there were any slackers left in Palo Alto. When she had grown up here a few decades earlier, there were plenty of slackers in town.

Episode 23 (10-03-15)

Carl sat under a tree along the Dish Trail in the Stanford Hills, furiously typing on his phone.

He’d just been struck with a brilliant money-making start-up idea: a robot nanny that could take care of a child in Palo Alto, and teach him or her Mandarin and sports; thus freeing the parent to have a 24/7 work life, unconfined by the needs of parenting.